Wednesday 5 September 2012

In the school playground, archaeologist Leon Hunt and colleagues continue to expand the section of Trench 3 between the two robbed walls. They find large quantities of broken decorated floor tiles, a sizeable pile of discarded pieces of tracery from a large stone window and a piece of elaborate stone frieze.

Over in the car park, Jo Appleby, assisted by site director Mathew Morris, begins to carefully uncover the skeleton in Trench 1, initially revealing the legs and the pelvis. There is no sign of the feet. Jo wears a special suit to prevent DNA contamination of the remains.

Dr Jo Appleby carefully excavates human remains in Trench 1 (A)

Back in the playground, two distinct spaces become evident in the church, represented by different patterns of floor tiling, still visible as impressions on the mortar bedding even though the tiles no longer survived. There is a step up from the lower western floor to the higher eastern floor. Built into the lower floor is a narrow stone wall running parallel with the church’s southern wall – perhaps the remains of the base of a choir stall. That would make the lower floor part of the church’s choir (and hence the higher floor part of the presbytery). Objective 4 achieved

Trench 3 (G-H) fully excavated, looking west. A medieval stone coffin and tile impressions in the presbytery can be seen in the foreground and the remains of a choir stall can be seen behind them.